3:44:46

Idaho, what a beautiful place to visit. So nice that I have thought many times of retiring here. It has the beauty of the mountainous west, with vast stretches of openness dotted with large hills and mountains. A little more water and a little more civilization nearby and this would be a perfect place to live out my life.

This race would be memorable for many reasons, but the first was the race check-in the night before. Even though a good size race (over 1000 runners for all races including 350 marathoners) there was no expo at all, just one room with check in stations for each race. In addition to a nice long sleeve technical shirt, we all received a high quality backpack and a bag of potatoes. Seriously. I love it when races try to be unique in their racer loot. I was glad to have packed light so I could bring the bag the bag of potatoes home with me.

A point to point race requiring busing to the start line and a race start of 6:15 am meant I was up at 4 am to start the ritual. Ugh. My good friend Gary got into the Pocatello area at 4am after arriving in SLC after midnight. I saw him for about 5 min before the race start, just enough time to hear about what food (if you want to call it food) he ate in the last few hours along with his 1 hour of sleep. He did just fine (kicked my butt, as usual) anyways. Must be nice doing this marathoning thing when you are young.

I have been dealing with an ankle issue for a few months now.   Originally I thought it was just another case of shin splints, but it turns out it might be something more like tendonitis of the lower calf muscle in my right leg.  After my Alaska marathon 3 weeks ago I had a hard time walking, it hurt so bad. I spend the next week resting and icing it, only working out on my elliptical machine (getting caught up on my TV shows) until it felt pretty good. I went for a 10 miler with the cross country team and 5 miles out I felt fine, then we took the turn to come back and it starting feeling a little rough. By mile 8 it was really hurting and had a serious problem. By the end of the run I could barely walk. No more runs then before this race, just more elliptical work. It had felt fine for days, but I was still very concerned when I finally toed the line, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

The first 10 miles of this race were actually downhill (net drop for the whole race is ~1500’) which you would think would be great, well not for my ankle. At mile 3 I started getting those same pains I had at mile 5 of my last run. My mind went wild with panic. Will I break 4 hours? Will I finish before the cutoff (6 hours)? Will I DNF? I am running 4 marathons in the span of 8 days in early October, will I be able to recover before then? Is my entire quest now in jeopardy? Will I be able to run my 100 miler in February? Am I totally washed up? Yeah, it was that bad. Freaking out like that at mile 5 of a 26.2 mile race is never a good thing. To try to survive, I slowed down and run as gentle as possible. To ease the impact on my ankle I even ran several short sections of the early race backwards. Being so steep, I was essentially only on my toes which gave my ankles a short break which helped a little. What helped more was just trying to keep my form as gentle as possible, with my right foot seemingly never going higher than about 2 inches off the ground.  I feared that intense pain that I felt 2 weeks ago would return. My ankle protested the entire way after mile 3, but never got worse. The Vicodin I took right before race start might have helped a little, I’m not sure 

At about mile 16, I was caught by a guy running barefoot. He had a pair of Vibram 5 fingers he was carrying and he was putting off their use as long as possible. He was struggling a little bit and so I decided to run with him to keep him motivated and focused. He was hurting pretty bad especially the last few miles but I tried to keep his mind off it. We slowed way down in the last 4 miles or so, and I had hoped we could easily cruise into a sub 3:45 time. With about 800m to go I knew he wouldn’t make it and I had to take off into a full sprint just to get under 3:45 myself. It’s all about the points, ya know.

The post race food spread was one of the best I have ever seen. Pulled pork sandwiches, ice cream bars,  chocolate milk, bagels, fruit, etc. Quite nice for such a small race. I only stuck around for a little bit because I had a long day planned for after the race and I was already running late. Gary had already taken off as he had to catch his flight early that afternoon out of SLC. I was not leaving the area until the next morning, so I decided to (even though Grand Teton was close by) to go the heart of Idaho because I had never been there.  I figure I should try to do SOME touristing here since I dropped the dime to get here.

Growing up, I visited parks and places all over the United States, but never Craters of the Moon National Monument, just a few hours northwest of Pocatello.  It really was cool, and it really did look like the surface of the moon, or like Hawaii with its volcanic rock. Even though the rocks were more than 2500 years old, there was little vegetation. I took the tour of the lava tubes and caves and tried to work on my deathly fear of confined spaces and made little progress on that. Oh well. On the way back to SLC I stopped as took a tour of one of the neatest places I have ever been to, the EBR-1 lab. It was the first nuclear power plant on the planet. It was the first nuclear reactor built for generating power via a nuclear reaction back in the 1950’s. Though never connected to the grid (so never powered a town) it was still a significant place. It was one of 57 nuclear power facilities on the Idaho National Laboratory land, but most of them are gone. This one still stands (and is maintained completely with tour guides) because it had been designated as a national landmark. For someone like me who enjoys reading and learning about the history of nuclear energy, this was totally awesome.

All in all, it was a pleasant trip. A horrible race, followed by some cool touring of the area. Pleasant memories.

3:09:41
10/320 overall
1st in age

So it is inevitable that when you are trying to do something in each of the 50 states that you need to get to Alaska. Sure, it’s going to be expensive, but the beauty of the trip makes up for it.  My family ( here defined as my parents, all their kids, their spouses and kids) gets together every summer for about a week somewhere, usually a national park. It is known as the ‘Family Gathering’. The gathering in 2011 is set to be in Alaska, but it being such a huge place a little more pre-planning was needed. Since I needed an Alaska marathon, I decided to turn my marathon trip into an official recon on the area.

My Mother normally does the vast majority of the planning for these gatherings, but I have begun to take over some of the responsibilities. My family came to Alaska back when I was 6 years old, and that trip contains my earliest childhood memories. Before I left or this trip, my Mother and I sat down and talked about a very loose schedule that I loosely followed once I got to Alaska, which was about 36 hours before race start.

I arrived in Anchorage late Friday night and on Saturday morning I drove 2 hours down to Seward, stopping maybe 15 times to sightsee or just take pictures. I am speed tourist, meaning that when I travel by myself and I can do enough tourist stuff to make me happy in a short period of time. This was definitely one such trip. This time of year is the rainy season in Alaska. Anchorage had gotten 28 straight days of rain before I got there. Clouds were everywhere, so beautiful pictures of mountains was actually hard to come by. Now, I am a mountain guy, and my favorite place on the planet is the Grand Tetons, but these mountains rivaled them in their awesomeness.

When I woke up race morning at 6am local the fog was so thick that visibility was about 200m, but moved to maybe half mile by race start, a very late 9am. This was my second race in a row running with my friend and fellow marathon freak, Gary Krugger. Two weeks previously, Gary and I stayed together for 39 miles of the Burning River 100 mile Championship but this time, he left me behind from the start. His first mile was sub 6, and mine was 6:05. Oh my, I knew this was gonna be bad. Starting out that fast is never a good thing. And sure enough, I was right.

The race course was nice, with half of it along paved bike path along the coast of the ocean, well, along the coast of a bay that was filled with ocean water. If it wasn’t cloudy, the view would have been nice. There was however a nice breeze and it drizzled on and off during the race. A nice 62 degrees made for an almost perfect running day. After almost 50 marathons, I realized that I could only think of maybe four races where the weather conditions actually sucked. I guess I get lucky with weather and racing.

Two weeks after my debut 100 mile race, my body was not at 100%. During the race, my knees gave some grief, my shins a little achy, and so I slowed from my 6:05/mile but maintained a solid pace. As I slowed and noticed a sub 3 was no longer possible,  I was comfortable with holding onto a sub 3:15. I was happy with 8 points.  I had 3 toenails permanently removed just 12 days before the race but they actually were fine, which was a pleasant surprise.

We were told there was a chance we might see moose during the race. We were told that is not a big deal unless you see a momma moose and a baby. They (like most animals) are worse as the mother is very protective. Well, at mile 18, sure enough there was a momma moose and her baby 5 feet off the bike trail we were racing. As I approached, a ace official warned me about the moose. No problems as both mom and child were just eating off to the side. When Gary ran through about 10 minutes earlier, Mom and baby were on the opposite sides of the path. You are told NEVER to get between Mom and child, but he survived the encounter. Tame moose I guess.

After the race chit-chatted with Gary until Morgan (Gary’s girlfriend and fellow marathoner) came in at just under 6 hours. That is a little slow by normal marathon standards, but she is recovering from a busted hip. A few months ago she ‘ran’ a marathon on crutches, in over 10.5 hours. This woman has more grit and heart than any runner I have ever met. Truiy.

I wanted to enjoy AK for a little while, and so I stayed in the area longer than I usually do. The race was Sunday morning and my flight didn’t leave until Monday evening. After I got some lunch in Anchorage I took a 2 hour drive north to a little town called Talkeetna, 15 miles off the beaten path. You would think a town this far from civilization would be as off the grid as is possible. Nope. I had cell phone coverage as well as internet access at my hotel.  Talkeetna is trying hard to survive, becoming a tourist town, so there were lots of little shops and restaurants each with their own little town Alaska flavor. That allowed me to be able to have a caribou (aka reindeer) burger. According to the nutritional facts given on the menu it was low in fat, but high in cholesterol. Quite delish.

On Monday I woke up early and headed north hoping to see Mt McKinley, the highest point in North America at just over 22k feet. The weather in this area is finicky and apparently McKinley is only visible ~20% of the time. My luck is good, but not that good. I got to see beautiful mountains but not THE mountain.  Once I realized that the weather was not going to clear, I left on my 4 hour drive back to Anchorage picking up brochures at a bunch of cool places including the Iditarod Headquarters and the Alaska Museum of Transportation.

A boring marathon but an awesome trip, which not how it usually goes. That was just fine by me.

18:29:50
10th overall

As my 50-states-marathon goal draws nearer (46 by this years end), I have wanted to try longer races to see if that was my ‘next step’, Why not do it in style, and enter the 2010 US Track and Field 100 mile trail championship. Bragging rights could ensue.

I ran a 24 hour race (~4mile loop, see how many times you can run it in 24 hours) in April as a prep to see if I could even run 100 miles in 24 hours. I was successful in that little jaunt, so I signed up for the Burning River 100. Since this was the USTAF 100 mile trail championship, the big dogs were out for this race, people whose names are very well known amongst the ultra running community. I figured If I finished strong here, that would be a sign. Since it is a USATF championship, it meant tighter rules, including no headphones and no pacers. That little rule stinks, so I had a lot of time to ponder while running…

BR100 in only its 4th year now, and is ‘huge’ (4th largest 100 mile race in the country with only ~250 entrants) and very well respected and for good reason. The whole thing was awesome, every detail seemed to have been accounted for, and it started many months before runners toed the line. The official race website was loaded with information, including detailed maps and even video highlights of every single segment of the course. Instead of a runner’s meeting the night before to go over important stuff, they made videos of those presentations too. Even before I came to the area, I knew this was going to be a well run race.

Course was very well marked, all 100 mile except for one section between mile 85 and 90. That was a little sucky, but I managed to not get lost. The aid stations were absolutely amazing. Granted, I was near the lead, and this was the national championship, but still. As soon as they saw me coming near the aid station, a person would run towards me (up stream) and ask me what I needed, as I came closer to the huge layout of food and drink (lots of choices!) that forward runner would yell to the aid station workers what I needed and they would get it ready for me. They filled my bottle at each aid station, I had to do nothing but eat. And this happened and every single aid station, all 20 of them. Did I mention they people are each station were also really friendly and encouraging? A better set of aid station volunteers could not be found.

Misty and I came down two weeks beforehand to scout out the course and mark the aid stations she would meet me as my crew. She is such a sweetheart. During the 18.5 hours of the race she saw me for a total of 15 minutes all day. I tried hard to make her life as easy as possible, so she just had to show up at an aid station, hold out my support bag, I rummage through it for what I wanted, and then I took off not to be seen again by here for maybe hours. I learned from my 24 hr race that I wanted to minimize the time spent standing still and she helped me keep moving and focused. I sat down exactly twice during the race, both times only to change socks and shoes.

The night before the race I met up with two running friends, Ryan Miller and Kevin Green, two other ultra runners who I have found on facebook. They are really great guys with happy thoughts of the race. They both started strong, and Kevin finished with a great 26:31 finish, but Ryan had to bail at mile 80 due to a lot of pain, and bumping up against the time limit.

Way back in Nov of 2009 I met Gary Krugger at the Mississippi Space Coast marathon. It was a small race and he passed me at mile 22 taking away a 2nd place finish. I had run a marathon 2 days earlier so I was quite happy with my 3rd place (and sub 3) performance that day. Turns out Gary is way more of a marathon freak than I am. In his mid-20’s, he is trying to run all 50 states, in one year, all under 3 hrs. He is a running machine and a really great guy. According to his girlfriend, he signed up for this 100 miler only because he saw my name on the entrants list. I found him at the starting line and we decided (since we both run very similar pace for marathons) that we should run together for as long as we could.

Gary had no ‘crew’ per se so he started the race with a 2L Camelbak water container. It didn’t take long ( a few miles) for him to curse that decision, so he gave it to Misty, my wonderful and beautiful crew chief, at mile 18, which was the first spot we saw her. Sure enough we stayed together, walking through aid stations and up any reasonable size hill (my strategy all day long). We would come upon people every once and a while and run with them, chatting about the race and our running histories, and had some fun, with sometime personal and graphic conversations. There seems to be no rules as to what is allowed conversation in distance races.

After about 30 miles, I could tell Gary was starting to drag. I was ‘leading’ him and he kept dropping farther back and I kept slowing. I had originally told him that I wanted to stay with him until mile 60, but I realized that he was going to slow me down too much. I was feeling great and wanted to take off. We were sitting in the high 30’s in place when we hit the mile 39 aid station. With a short ‘Dude, I’m gonna take off’, I flew out of there, picking my pace up considerably. I passed 10 people in the next 10 miles. At mile 54.5, I had managed to move up to 20th place. I was feeling awesome. The pains in my feet and legs (most of which appeared before mile 20) were all still there, but more importantly, were not getting worse. My body was strong, but I was starting to get weak, and I knew it was probably due to a lack of food.

The miles plugged along and I was tiring. Between mile 74 and 81, I dropped 3 spots (at that point I was in ~12th place) I had no energy left, and it was the roughest section all day. I simply had nothing left and still one more marathons distance to go. I sent Misty on a run to find me some Monster Energy drink which I got at mile 90 but only helped my spirits, not my energy. At the mile 81 aid station I decided I needed to stay for a little while and eat something. 2 bowls of ramen noodles not only tasted faboo, but it gave me a jolt of energy that helped for at least the next 8 miles. 81 miles into a 100 mile race is a good time to get 10 miles worth of energy.

The toughest part of this race is section R which contains the dreaded ‘Perkins Trail’ which has lots of roots and mud and steep climbs, all between miles 81 and 86. And of course, for most runners this section would be done at night. I had a goal of reaching it before sunset (8:40pm local) and was tickled when I hit that section at 7pm. No headlamp needed, and it made a huge difference. It would have taken twice as long had I had to do it at night.

By mile 90, I was spent, but near the end of the race which had lots of roads and wide bike paths for running on. I had started to walk pretty much full time by then, and lost a few places. My legs were now starting to complain and my energy was toast. I was walking strong, but simply could not run. Mental toughness is still not something I have a lot of. I need to work on that, somehow. USATF has cash money prizes for the first 6 places, and knowing I was out of contention, I just decided to relax and ride it in. I was walking fast (15 min miles still) which is pretty good after I had been moving for 17+ hours. My mantra was ‘keep moving and you’ll finish just fine’.

I knew I was in 10th place when I took the last turn about 1.5 miles from the finish. That last stretch is up a long steady hill on city street. After I made the turn I looked behind me and there, not more than 600m behind me was someone’s headlamp, and it was bouncing. He was running. I was not. Poop. In my only real case of mental toughness, I told myself I was NOT going to lose that 10th place finish. I started running and ran up that entire freaking hill and all the way to the finish line. I kept checking and I am prety sure that my chaser had walked up the hill. I even turned off my headlamp as I did not want him to see how close he was, lest he get ideas of trying to catch me.

I crossed the finish line just under 18.5 hours to a small but loud-cheering crowd. Misty was there and I did my traditional handstand. In fact I did three handstands. My camera that she was using did not like the lighting, so none of them were captured on film. You’ll just have to trust me on this one. I have witnesses.

It was 11:30pm local and there was a bar right near the finish. Misty and I walked (slowly) there afterwards and I tried to enjoy a tall Blue Moon. I had a hard time drinking it as my body was starting to totally shut down. I was shivering pretty bad and felt horrible. I finished the beer and we headed to the car. I didn’t have any food at the race end because I had no appetite whatsoever. That was good, because we headed back to the hotel (about a 20 min trip, and I felt nauseous for most of if. Literally 2 minutes away from our hotel, I told Misty she needed to pull over. Quick. With seconds to spare, she stopped, and I got the door open before I puked. It was the cleanest puke I have ever had. It contained only water and beer, nothing else.

After we sat there for a little bit we finally got to the hotel. I very slowly got out of my running stuff, did a quick check of my toes (only 2 are in bad shape, but they are pretty bad) took a quick shower and was in bed by 1 am.

After only about 6 hours of sleep, I got up and was just happy to be alive. I could walk and my legs weren’t that bad. I predict my gait will be ‘normal’ in only a few days. My body seemed to be just fine with racing this distance. My legs are strong enough to complete it without too many problems, but I really need to figure out the fueling problem. I had it at my 24 hr run as well, I just need to get more food in me, not just more liquids. Other than the ramen noodles at mile 81, nothing tasted good, which is what sucks. I need to find food that my stomach will handle. Of course, I didn’t need any real food until after mile 50, so how do youtrain for that without doing 50 mile training runs? Haa zaa! I am going to do 20 milers without having eaten much the 12 or so hours before. Just some Gatorade and water. Go out the run knowing full well that my body with get tired very quickly, then try ‘new’ things. Room-temp cooked Raman? Do I have to break down and start using gel packs (which I hate by the way)? Something more creative? If I want to do these well, that’s one of the last hurdles to overcome. Compared to the actual running training (which I seemed to have conquered), it should be an easy problem to fix. Of course, I was not 100% healthy either, getting over a sinus infection as well…

The immediate aftermath of the race was quite compelling. In my first 100 mile race, which happened to be the national championship, I finished in 10th place. So according to the US Track and Field, I am the 10th fastest 100 mile racer in the country for 2010. Could I have found my niche? Marathons in general are now almost cliché, being huge and to the point where ‘anyone could do one’, especially if you don’t care about how fast you run it. The crazies have been pushed out to the 50 and 100 mile distances. Could I have found my forte? Could I have found my home? Where I need to be? I am now in very elite company.

I am so glad that that I have Misty there for me. She is so supportive of this psychosis, even now that it has taken me to the point where I run for 18.5 hours straight. I am so blessed to have her in my life. I could not do this without her. She is an incredible life partner and I thank her every day for her presence in my life.

Other Runners Blogs of this race:
9th Place Finisher
Back of the pack video entry part 1 part 2

3:10:17
101/2700 Overall
15/244 Division

As I get closer and closer to my goal of running marathons in all 50 states, I am starting to come upon those states that only have a few races each year. Running doubles saves a bunch of money, but sometimes you just have to pony up and make a trip for only ONE race, and you don’t get to choose when it is. This was the case of my 38th state, Vermont. I actually flew into New Hampshire (avoiding Boston area) and drove ~2.5 hours NW to Burlington, Vermont. The road trip was beautiful, and it reminded me of why I love this part of the country. Late May and all the tress were in full summer glory, rolling hills (the call them mountains here) as far as you could see. Because it is not really flat there are very few farms, just green everywhere. As well as the sheer beauty of this whole area, the people are very kind and sweet. Laid back, and liberal. I felt very comfortable here all weekend. If I could pick it all up and move it south 500 miles (for less harsh winters) I would retire here.

The Vermont City marathon has been around for a long time, and so they know how to run a race. The expo was actually pretty cool, and I had to break down and buy a pair of running socks because I forgot mine (first time in 40+ marathons I forgot my socks) and checked into the hotel and went over to check out Lake Champlain before dinner. The lake is gorgeous, separating Vermont from upstate New York. It reminded me a lot of Puget Sound, it was that scenic.

Race morning went as usual, nothing exciting and due to the size of the race I arrived at the start/finish area 1.5 hours before race start to get a good parking spot. The forecast had been for crap, with 40% chance of thunderstorms and a projected high in the mid 80’s. The night before, everything changed. At race start, the sky was overcast, temp in the mid 50’s and it would only get to the high 60’s before I finished. The sun did come out at about mile 10, which slowed me down a bit, but not too much.

As usual, I did not train for this marathon per se, so I had no idea how fast I could run it. I started out fairly fast, running 6:45ish pace the first 10 miles. When I hit the half way mark in exactly 1:30, I knew I could not hold that pace to break 3 hours. With that possibility out, I just had to stay under 3:15 so I could still get my 8 points for this race in my 50sub4 marathon club quest.  As such, I slowed down to a comfortable pace and decided to enjoy the run.  I am a ‘trainer’, not a ‘racer’ and I know that. I am mentally weak when it comes to racing, and I have always known that. If I could get over that, I could break 2:50 again, but who knows if I can ever do that. I run as well as I do simply because I have trained my body to run in the 7-7:15 pace range comfortably for hours. Put simply, I race well in spite of my mental weakness because my body can do it without use of my brain.

The people of Burlington really love us marathoners. They were out in force cheering us on, not just because we brought of munch of tourism dollars to the area. The volunteers were numerous and enthusiastic, and it reminded me a lot of my recent race in Lincoln, NE. The only thing this race had that Lincoln did not was the views. At several points during the race we got nice views of Lake Champlain and all its beauty, it was awesome.

The finish was really cool, as we were put on a path that had snow fence on both sides, but spectators lined up on both sides. A six foot path lined for 400m by people cheering you on. The winners had come in almost an hour earlier, but the crowds were still there cheering us on as if we were winners. Lots of food, including some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream (This is Vermont after all) and I headed back to shower and get ready for my drive back to New Hampshire.

Another beautiful drive south to Manchester got me there in time to catch a movie before dinner at an EMPTY sports bar in downtown and then a good night sleep at a very nice hotel (Thanx Hotwire!) and then my trip home. The distinct memories of this trip would have to be the wonderful views and the kind people. A nice happy run. Thanx Vermonters!!!

3:26:39
159/1151 Overall
27/124 Division

Well, this was a totally different experience than the race I ran, just 24 some odd hours before.

So I got into Omaha (1.25 hours away from my hotel) at ~10pm the night before the race, which is never a good omen, especially because I was tired as heck and only got ~6 hours of sleep the night before.

This was the 33rd annual National Guard (Guard troops from all over the country running which was awesome to see, especially me being a National guard vet) Lincoln Marathon , so the entire operation was a well oiled machine. The town of Lincoln really supports this race. I heard the figure of 2000+ volunteers (for 5000+ runners), all of which were quite happy to help us runners out. Always smiling, cheering us on, it was awesome. The aid stations had something I have never seen before in my entire racing career, many of the water/Gatorade cups having lids and straws. Very labor intensive, but boy, did it make drinking while running so much easier it was so awesome. Weather was perfect, 45 degrees and no wind at race start, and I think it was maybe hit 55 by race end. You could not ask for more perfect marathoning weather, trust me. A total and complete different marathon than the one I ran yesterday.

I was hurting, so this was a perfect race to find someone who was running a reasonable pace and chat/run with them, making the miles go by faster. I spend time chatting with a few people (all of which later ‘took off’ leaving me behind, until I met this wonderful woman from Omaha. Turns out she was running her very first marathon, and she seemed cool, so I spend the next 2.5 hours running right next to her, coaching her and chatting with her keeping her mind off how much she was hurting. Before this race, she had never run farther than 18 miles. We chatted about school, jobs, the health care crisis, love (the story of how she met her husband is really cute, I have to say) anything I could come up with to keep her mind off what was actually happening. She thanked me profusely but I told her that if it wasn’t for her, I would have started taking walking breaks at mile 18. Turns out, I was hurting pretty bad, but being ‘there’ for her helped me stay strong. Another case of being a good Samaritan paying me back in spades. I wish I could do this for someone every race, pacing them to their goals. It feels awesome. I should sell my services

After a nice jog, the finish line was the 50 yard line at Nebraska Stadium (ya know, where the Cornhuskers play) which was cool. My first two ever marathons, Sunburst and Detroit also finished on 50 yard lines (Notre Dame stadium and Ford Field, respectively) so the handstand here was pretty cool.

As upset as I was about yesterday’s marathon, I was very happy with the Lincoln marathon. Great people, lots of support, well run race. My hat’s off to these Nebraskans. They know how to pull a marathon off. This one will be remembered as one of the most seamless and enjoyable. A quick drive, lots of food and a long 2 hop flight home followed by a 2 hour drive got me to Misty’s at 11:45 pm.

I was in the state of Texas for only 22 hours, and in Nebraska for just 18. A whirlwind trip, like most of my other marathon trips, only more so. This trip with all it planning, logistics, and running required a lot of focus and time, but I seem to be getting good at it. Once I finally achieve my 50 states goal, who knows what I’ll do. Every marathon within a 200 mile radius? I wonder how many that is…

3:21:01
15/161 overall
2/15 age

One word to describe this whole darn marathon: Poo. It was hot, humid, and executed by a bunch of amateurs. But I’m getting ahead of myself….
This trip has been planned for several months, and I always knew it was a ‘double’ only 2 weeks after my first 24 hour race. I knew it would be rough, but a worse hand could not have been dealt.

There are few cardinal rules in marathoning, but one of the most important is never run in an ‘inaugural’ race. Ever. Ya just don’t do it. No matter what. If you need evidence for it, I submit this race report. Bad moves all over the place. But again, I am getting ahead of myself….

As I follow my state chase, I try hard to save money wherever I can. I run ‘doubles’ (two marathons in one weekend) to save money, not prove something. In this case, I flew a triangle flight path, Detroit to Houston, Houston to Omaha, Omaha to Detroit.

My weekend began good enough, getting to Houston on Friday afternoon and had a great dinner as a hole in the wall restaurant in Houston with an old friend. The food and conversation were both great. A quick ~1 hour drive to po-dunk (A.K.A. Beaumont) Texas.

Packet pickup was chaotic to say the least. With a 5K, half marathon and full marathon and some people pre-registered, some people wanting to register right then and there, you would think they would have signs designating which volunteers had which. Nope. You got 10 lines for 10 volunteers and you didn’t find out until you got to the table that you were in the wrong line. This was a sign of bad thing to come….

Hotel (Thanks Hotwire.com!) was nice and cheap, two things I love in a hotel and I woke up at 5am for my 7:30am race. The race information was pretty crappy, never really telling you where to park,so I got about 0.5 miles away and thought I was OK. Turns out, we ran right by my car during the race. I almost thought about changing socks on the second trip around.

With <5min to go, the people at the race start realized that all 1500+ runners were on the wrong side of the start line and told them to go over to the other side. Yeah, THAT was smart. They had not mastered the art of the PA system, and nobody bothered to shepard people in the correct place before the last minute, but OK, I’ll give ‘em that one.

One thing outside the race director’s sphere of influence was the weather. It was drizzling and 75 degrees, on its way to 85 degrees and 150% humidity by mile 18. It was blessedly overcast until mile 14 when the sun came out and that was oppressive. Everyone around me was hurting. I ran a 100+ mile race just 2 weeks previous, so I was not 100% by any means. I actually had knee pain and light shin splints going into this race. By mile 3, my shins were absolutely screaming with incredible amounts of pain. One way to prevent shin splints is to (no joke) do some running backwards. It stretches out the correct muscles and actually helps. Many of the miles were on closed off highway so the road was in good condition (read: no potholes) so I did 200 or so meters running backwards. That helped because when I flipped back around, I felt no pain for ~400m, and then the pain came back but slowly. I did that 3 more times and then, and mile 7ish, a miracle happened. My shins, decided that they were in fact fine and all pain went away, never bothering me again all race. I give a lot of credit to a brand new pair of 2XU calf compression guards, which seemed to really help. My knee gave me small cries all day long, but nothing major. Considering how beaten up I was going into this race, I felt pretty damn good.

Ok, back to yelling at the race directors…VERY poorly marked course. Some of the race marshals did not even know which was we were supposed to turn at some points. The course had seemingly zillions of turns through town, and some were not even labeled. One the second loop (for us a few marathoners) the field was so thin you could not use that tried and true method of not getting lost by just ‘following the runner in front of you’ because they would sometimes take wrong turns or you couldn’t even see them, they were so far ahead.

Ok, last dig. It’s hot, right? It’s humid, right? So that means your sweat is just plain not cooling you off. You are overheating. You would think water is REALLY *&$#%ing important, yeah? The last 7 water stations of the race were dry. Bone dry. No water, no Powerade, nothing. Well, some had some oranges leftover they would give you in the cups meant for water. I saw one aid station getting refilled by some National Guard troops (Thanx guys!) but obviously not enough was done. Everyone I talked to during the race was upset, and wanted to get done and get out of dodge. I could not agree more. The only bright spot of this race was the finishers medal, a nice cool design with a oil well shape. was really cool, gotta give them that.

From past experience from doubles, I knew I needed to get food energy in me as fast as possible, recovering from one race and prepping for the next, and I think I found the perfect food, chocolate milk. Loaded with calories, fat, protein, carbs, and my stomach took it with no icky-ness at all. On my way out of town getting to Nebraska, I had a late lunch at the airport, and I chose crispy fried alligator, and yes it tasted like chicken….

101.25 miles (in 19:59)

T-3rd overall

I have been thinking about what to do ‘next’ for a while. I have been knocking off marathon-states for a few years, and will be at 44 by the end of the year (fingers crossed) so I have decided to dabble into ultrarunning. I never really liked doing speedwork, which is now defined as anything under 10K, I just like going out and running and a nice gentle but solid pace (read: 7:30/mile) which is usually my recovery pace.

A few months before my first marathon back in 2006, I ran a half marathon just to see if I was going to die. I didn’t and it boosted my confidence quite a bit. A few months ago I signed up for my first 100 mile race, the Burning River 100 in July. Before I attempted that race though, I wanted to make sure I could run 100 miles and not die. A 24 hour race (where you have 24 hours to run as far as you can) was a perfect idea for a ‘test’ run.

I got to VA in time to take Friday ‘off’ just relaxing all day, in preparation of a long day running. I only ventured out to go grocery shopping for the race and to visit the USS Wisconsin, who sits permanently in Norfolk, VA.

This race involved a 3.75 mile loop at the Sandy Bottom Nature Preserve, a beautiful area in Hampton, VA. The trail itself was ground rock and I was very surprised that not once did a stray rock get into my shoe. Granted, one long section was near the interstate, and once small section near a stinky swamp, but every part of the course was beautiful.

I have a horrible habit of starting out races too fast (even marathons) and I knew I couldn’t do that this time. I had raced the previous weekend and my legs had not quite recovered completely, so I decided that when the race started I would walk the first 0.5 mile of the race. My goal for the race was to always be moving, never sitting down for more than a minute to tend to my feet. The first half mile of every loop was walked, all 27 laps. The other thing I did was consume some food every loop. A can of soda (no gastric distress! Yeah!), a handful of gummi bears, a bag of chips, a small snickers bar, whatever. Always keep moving. Time spend sitting is time wasted. Each loop I took a container of fluid and some food. This strategy seemed to work quite well as I never hit the wall, it was my swollen ankle that eventually stopped me.

As I was getting near the end of lap 1, I came up on a professional ultra runner,Sabrina who ran a 17:21 at Umstead 100 miler 2 weeks ago. Sabrina was the model of even pace. We chatted until the end of lap 1. I took my walk break, and she moved on. I caught her with 1-1.5 miles to go each lap for the next 5. Pleasant conversation made the race go by nicely. She ended up dropping at just under 60 miles, complaining of not being fully recovered from Umstead.

My first marathon (7 laps) was done in just over 4 hours. Each lap was taking me about 35-40 minutes. The weather forecast was supposed to be clear, but it rained on and off for those first few hours, which really stunk. I never got really wet, just annoyed. By noon, the sun came out (mid 70’s) and was a little hot.

One of the big surprises of this race was how fast time went by. My mental preparation for this race seemed to have worked. Before this day, my longest run (ever) was 40 miles, back in March. Looking down at my stopwatch and it reading ‘8:00′ and me feeling ok was totally weird. “I’ve been running for 8 hours straight? Wow!”

My feet did great the whole race, I changed my socks and shoes at 40 and 80 miles. At about mile 20, I got a small blister on the side of my big toe (never had one there before) so I stopped, cleaned it, added some moleskin. My athletic tape wrapping and petroleum jelly cream worked like a charm. Losing 5 toenails from last weeks marathon probably helped me.

Second marathon done in 8:35, laps down to 45 min each. By then I was walking twice per lap, once at the beginning, and once about halfway in. Remember, that was always my plan. Never stopping, always moving. My legs were starting to fail, but I could still move. Afternoon slipped into early evening, and I started to get tired. Still no stopping for more than a few moments and my third marathon was done in 13:44. The sun was now essentially down and I started walking pretty much the whole time. What is interesting is that I was still moving pretty fast. The last lap that I ‘ran’ any portion took me about 47 min. My first ‘walking only’ lap took me about 52 minutes. I managed to keep that pace until the very end.

My goal for the race had always been 100 miles, which is just under 27 laps. With 2 laps to go, I actually took my first sit down break. I sat down and took my shoes off, but just for 5 minutes, then back on and back out. 100 miles in less than 20 hours, after that it’s all gravy. So I could stop and note it, I took my GPS watch for that 27th lap so I could stop dead on the spot that was 100 miles. At ~2:45 am Sunday, I reached that spot. I sat down, turned off my headlamp and contemplated my accomplishment for a moment (and to update my facebook status) before I got up and walked (slowly) back to the start/turn around point. I got back at 3:15 am, and had 4 hours to go. Having accomplished my 100 mile goal, I decided to take a long break. I actually headed to my car and turned on the engine, as I was now cold and not feeling well. My plan was to sleep until 5ish and then head back out to do one more lap to finish at 4 full marathons. When I woke up, my ankle was screaming at me, and it took little time to convince myself that I was done for the day, so I slept until 6:30. I had dropped out in 2nd place, and ended tied for 4th place. Once I woke back up, I felt better so I slowly tore down my little aid station (large box of food, my gatorade, lawn chair), grabbed my 100 mile plaque and got on the road. I had hoped to get a shower in before I left, but there were none at the park so I just took off onto the interstate, with tape still on my toes. I had 11 hours of driving in front of me, and thought there was a chance I could get home Sunday night. I had slept about 2.5 hours there at the end of the race and I made it about an hour down the road before I had to stop. I curled up in the back of my SUV and slept for a little over an hour. Made it another 2 hours along my way and then slept another hour. I hoped I could make it home before the sun set, as I have a hard time driving at night especially after what I had gone through the previous 36 hours. I made it home with about 15 minutes of daylight left. After tending to my feet I finally took a long deserved shower and then crashed.

I feel like a rookie, now having done my first 100+ mile race. I almost think it was too darn easy. I am sure I will run another one and I am sure I will get hammered in some future race, but this one seemed an easier effort that I ever thought it would be. Here, a day later my body is hurting but not much worse than after my worst marathon. Marathon. 26.2 miles. Who ever thought I would see that is a short run.

3:23:43.5
A New World Record!

So lately, as I work along my struggle to complete marathons in all 50 states before I turn 40 (I will be at 44 states by the end of 2010, me age 38.5), I have been trying to find new motivation. My state chase is fun and exciting, but I needed something to mix it up. I have thinking about running longer races and signed up for a 24 hour race in April several months ago. Back in the winter of 2008-09 the weather was really cold so I started running in the JCC fieldhouse because I am a wimp and don’t like running in the cold (One bad experience, and it ruined cold weather running for me, go ahead, you can probably figure it out. I ‘ll give you a hint: I’m a guy) but the fieldhouse is not that big and the ‘track’ is <200 m long. As such, you get bored really quick. I decided one day to pick up a basketball and dribble, just to break up the monotony of the running. It worked as I made it through the off season still in great shape and went on to have a fast and successful 2009 marathon season.

So winter comes in late 2009 and it gets cold and again I am back into the fieldhouse, again occasionally dribbling a basketball, sometime for as long as an hour and a half. Sometime in Jan of this year I was dribbling along and got to wondering if there was a world record for fastest marathon while dribbling a basketball and what the record was. After my run and a few minutes researching, I come to find out the current record was 3:48, set by some guy in the 2009 LA marathon. The way I actually found out was finding the blog of a guy in CA who was raising money for underprivileged kids for scholarships and was training to break the record in March at the Napa Valley marathon, which, by that time, I had already signed up to run. I thought about making the attempt the same time he did, but decided against it, thinking it would be nice to let him have it (albeit briefly). I was looking at the calendar and saw the Martian Marathon in mid-April and thought it would be perfect for my attempt because it was near home, (only an hour away) well organized, (I ran the half marathon back in 2006) and very flat. I signed up and eventually got ‘permission’ from the race directors to make the attempt. I submitted the initial paperwork to Guinness and they sent me the official rules, how to certify the record (if broken) etc. I was all ready to go. The record attemptor at Napa Valley (I never saw him, only the spare basketballs along the course) failed, running a 4:20ish because of a bad fall at mile 14, messing up his knee. I felt bad for him, but good because I still needed to only beat a 3:48, slower than any marathon I have ever ran.

Being exactly one week before my first ever serious ultra marathon, the Martian marathon was at the end of my taper which was good. I was in shape, ready to go complete, with a brand new basketball. My  Mother was in town for an Episcopal church meeting so I actually crashed at her hotel the night before (Thanks again Mom!) which was right next to the race start/finish. I woke up and followed all the standard race day procedures and made it to the race about 20 min before the start. A little chilly, but actually perfect race conditions. As has happened to me many times, moments before the gun I see Chuck Engle at the start. We chat, wish each other luck (he would actually win the whole race) and then we were off. A good, fast field of runners, and I started my dribbling. The only crowded place being that first 400m or so. People gave me a wide berth and at no point during the race did anyone bump into me. The first mile went by in 6:20 and I knew I was wrong, going way too fast so I slowed down and tried to get into a rhythm that I could maintain. People along the course cheered me on, some knowing was I was doing, many thinking they were funny making (lame) jokes. “Double Dribble!” “Where’s the hoop? “, “Between the legs, man!” I did not laugh at any such cracks. Had to focus. I lost control only 3 times. Each time stopping, going back to where I lost the dribble and began again. Also, I came to a full and complete stop at ever water station to drink.

My dearest Mistique was my support crew, finding me at several spots along the course with my spare basketball and a video camera to help document the record. As the miles went along I started getting really tired. Turns out my arms would not get that sore, but it just took a lot more energy than I expected. Your running stride becomes inefficient when you are dribbling a basketball, most notably my stride length getting shortened. I would end up losing 5 toenails after this race because of my toes slamming into the front of my shoe with every (short) stride. I ran a 3:23 but I had to probably do 10% more steps than a normal marathon.

I took exactly one walk break for about 400m right around mile 24.5, I just had to and knew I wanted to finish by running. I knew I had the record sewn up, so I had to rest just a bit before the final mile. I came across the finish line, stopped, set the basketball down, and actually did a handstand. I have no idea how I did, but the small miracle happened.

A very slow walk to the food area and I was just plain exhausted. It took quite a bit to get back to Mom’s hotel room where I took a quick ice bath for my screaming legs and then out to lunch with Misty and Mom. I had done it, and it felt good, but not as good as I thought it would. I now own a world record (not official, but soon, hopefully) Nobody on the planet has ever done this as fast as I have. Ever. That should totally make me happy, right? Of all my running accomplishments, I see this as just another one of a growing handful. 50 states. Under 3 hours (lots of times). Two marathons in one weekend. 100 mile weeks. 100 mile days. World record holder. I try hard to be humble, and fail a lot, but sometimes, you have the right to boast. Not sure if I am there yet, though…

3:05:52
60/1735 overall
12/159 age

So I knew I needed a California marathon, and there are bunches, and I found one who timing and location was perfect. It was the Sunday at the start of my spring break and was only a 1 hour drive from my brother’s house. I could come and visit him and his family and knock of a state (even stay a few days and enjoy it). I have never spend so much time at a marathon location, actually. The weather in Michigan was just about to to become spring like with highs in the mid 40’s, but out in CA, the lows were in the mid 40’s and highs in the mid 60’s. Perfect weather for us runners.

The flight out (2 hour layover in Phoenix) was uneventful but LONG. I tried to get some work done  and did, although not my grading. I arrived Friday afternoon (for a Sunday marathon), stayed up until 4:30am ‘body time’ talking with my bro about life, work, kids, spouses-to-be, family, etc. It was awesome to just sit and talk with him over a few glasses of wine.

Saturday afternoon we met up with his fiancee to do some winery touring in the Livermore Valley. We hit 4 wineries, which was kindof fun, then headed to a local Applebees for dinner (two guesses and the first one doesn’t count for what I had) and then I took off for my 65 min drive to Napa.

The race which has been going on for 32 years did have a cool goodie bag. It was an actual (what seems like high quality) dufflebag loaded with free samples of mostly food, some of which was really tasty. Having gotten only 5 hours of sleep the night before, I went to bed at about 8pm the night before the race. Wake up at 4:30, shower, tea, sandwich, then to the finish line to ride the bus up to the start. The course was a point-to-point race completely along THE Napa valley. Very scenic, especially if you like grape vines, because they lined about 95% of the course.

It has been a very long time since I ran race that was solely a marathon (no half-marathon associated with it) so all 2300 of us were marathoners. I was talking with some fellow runners and they called this a ’small race’. I told them that of the 41 marathons I have run, this was one of the 5 LARGEST I have run. People in California seem to have a skewed sense of the term ‘large’

I had actually sort of tapered for this race, only running 35 miles last week (I had run 110 the week before, however) so I was shooting for a good solid time. I will admit I was gunning for sub 3, and was on pace for that until about mile 11, then I my lack of sleep started to creep up on me. Being a marathoner of quantity now instead of quality, I was ok with slowing down just a little and enjoying the beautiful scenery and chatting with runners briefly as they passed my by, sometime quite zippy.

The crowd support was actually really good, with lots of people out coming to cheer (really loud in some cases) for us runners. I ran by what seemed like zillions of wineries, and not one was giving out samples. I was a little bummed by that as I thought for sure someone would offer us thirsty runners something to satisfy our parched bodies. Oh well. No wine at the finish either, except for the winners who won their ‘weight in wine’. The rest of us would have to buy our own. When I ran the Wineglass Marathon in Corning, NY all the racer received a commemorative small bottle of champagne, which tasted awful (but free!) I guess Napa valley wine is just too expensive to waste it on us marathoners, ya know the ones pouring big bucks into the local economy by coming to this race? Ok, I’m done bitching now

This was the RRCA Western Regional Marathon championships, so I was actually running with some wicked fast people, as such I was really happy with my overall placing. Handstand across the finish line and I got a pretty cool finishers medal, and the tastiest cup of soup I had ever had. I am usually not a huge fan of vegetable soup, but this stuff was so salty, it was delish. After a little recovery time, I headed back to my hotel for a quick shower before I headed back down to spend the rest of the day with my brother. As I was driving, I realized something bad. Less than 2 hours after the race, the ‘excitement’ of finishing a marathon was gone. When I ran my first marathon back in June of 2006, I was flying high for an entire week. Now I don’t even get 2 hours before that euphoria is gone. Once I realized it, I was actually a little depressed.

I still had a few days in town, which was great getting to spend more time with my bro and his fam. I have been running consistently for 4.5 years now and I have never been bitten by a dog while on a run. Well, the day after this marathon I was helping my brother pull a tree stump in the backyard of his fiancee’s house and her dog (who doesn’t like chainsaws or strangers) came and after a few previous small friendly interactions, actually attacked me, taking a small bite out of my leg, ripping skin and bruising me something fierce. Luckily it was on my quad and I am used to that muscle being sore, so the 9 mile run I did afterward it wasn’t horrible. The wound looks worse than it feels.

This trip was awesome because I got to see my brother and his family, but I missed Misty and my three kids way more than I expected I would. It would be so nice if I could bring them along on my racing trips, I don’t even have the money to fund the trips I take by myself.

3:24:59
5:19 for 40 mile day total
9/137 Overall
1/12 Age

I have been running marathons now for just under 4 years. With ~40 under my belt I have recently decided to start moving to more ultra-marathons (technically any distance >26.2 miles), as a 26.2 mile run is now ‘easy’ for me. Well, ‘easy’ is a relative term. With my ability to recover from a hard 26.2 mile race in less than a few days, survive double marathon weekends, etc. I decided I needed to move up to longer and harder race distances. To think, when I was 18 years old, a 10K (6.2 miles!) was considered ‘too far’ for me.

Having decided that I am going to run a 24 hour race in April and a 100 miler in July, I needed to do more long training runs. I thought I had a great idea. Go to a marathon, run 8 miles before the race, run the marathon, then run 6 miles as a cool-down afterwards, making it a 40 mile day. That is all well and good if you run the 40 miles at a smart pace. I screwed that plan up fierce.

I woke up race morning in the tourist-trap-town that is Sedona, AZ at 4:20 am local time (which is 6:20 ET which is my normal wake-up time, no problem) did my standard morning thing (shower, tea, peanut butter sandwich) and went to the starting line about 80 minute before race time. I set out for my 8 mile warmup run, try to go easy. The pace started at about 8:00/mile and picked up, averaging 7:45 for the whole 8 miles. I get to the starting line about 10 min before start, warm and I am of course  ready to go. I had not gotten ‘excited’ about this marathon race until just those last minutes, probably because I was so focused on the ‘40 mile day’.

The race was small (less than 140 marathon finishers) which was bad, because it meant I was in front and the competitive juices in me began flowing and I ran like I normally would in a marathon, my first

5 miles at 7:10 pace. Just fine if I was running 26 miles, dumb if I am running 40. At about mile 11, I meet up with a nice guy from Pittsburgh. Turns out he is a post-doc Biology researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. We talked marathons and research for about 6 miles together which made those miles fly by.

The course was beautiful, starting out in northern Sedona and heading out into the wide open spaces, maybe half the course being on packed red dirt road. The hills were small, but damn frequent. Race start weather was 43 degrees and essentially no wind. It was overcast and sprinkled lightly on us during the race, but never got over 50 degrees and yes those are absolutely perfect race weather conditions. By mile 19 (27 for my day) I was officially tired and started my first walking break of the day, many miles too late. I have been working on strategies for my ultras which involves walking up all hills and/or 10-15% of the flat miles. This stems from my ‘minimum’ running speed still being too fast to maintain for over 5 hours. After that point in the marathon I walked up every hill, and ran flats and downhills. I managed to cross the finish line still in good order, but that handstand was tougher than usual. The marathon course in and of itself was rough. The fact that I finished in the top 10 with a 3:24 speaks to that difficulty. A quick stop at the finish line aid station, some pretzels from my bag and I was off on my 6 mile cool-down which I must say was rough. I ran the final miles of the course backwards to take advantage of the aid stations (one of the reasons I picked a marathon for a 40 mile training run) I seemed to look at my GPS watch every 0.3 mile which made it seem like forever. After 5 hours and 19 minutes of running for the day, I finished my 40 miles. I learned a whole bunch about that distance, like I need to NOT use marathons as ‘part’ of a training run. I just can’t get over my ‘competitiveness’ to run it slow and smart as part of a longer run. From here on out, I will just use them for long tempo runs.

This was meant to be a ‘vacation’ marathon in that the scenery was one of the cool parts of this trip. When I first rolled into Sedona, I was awe-struck, the burnt red buttes everywhere, snow covered mountains in the distance. It was beautiful and when I my mom called me I teased her for not bringing me here as a kid. By the second day in town, however, I realized that this place was almost identical to an area mere miles from Rock Springs, WY, the town I lived in 1998-2001, teaching at Western Wyoming Community College. I remembered how I missed being able to leave town and in short order be surrounded by beautiful wide open landscapes.

After the race I changed clothes, got some food, and drove around town trying to take some good pictures. I had corresponded with a former student (from my days teaching in Wyoming) who lived in Prescott, 1.5 hours down the road towards Phoenix We decided to meet up for dinner and I had the time, so I took the scenic drive ‘over the pass’ which took me by Jerome, an old mining town literally built into the side of a mountain. It was cool, beautiful, but dangerous. I had to pull over a couple of times to enjoy the view because my eyes would linger a little too long while I was driving and I almost drove off the road to imminent death. Twice.

I met up with my former student, Jon, who is now a successful Optometrist. It was really cool seeing someone who survived my class and actually went on to become what he wanted to ‘grow up to be’. He is married, has a little girl, doing what he loves and has the world by the horns. He knows what happiness really is and he went out and got it. It warmed the cockles of my heart to see him again. Since he was now an overpaid Doctor, I made him pay for dinner, of course. He was my student 8 years ago, seemingly a lifetime, but his memories of me (and mine of him) were still very vivid. It was quite nice. He still called me ‘Doc’ which made me giggle.

A 2 hours drive back to Phoenix, a good nights sleep, and long flight back and my smash and grab tourist trip to beautiful Sedona was over. This was a both a learning experience trip as well as a time to remember times past, but just the good parts.